Motive, role identity, and prosocial personality as predictors of volunteer activity

By M. Finkelstein, Louis A. Penner, Michael T. Brannick. 2005

338 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Constructs from the functional analysis and role identity models of volunteerism were combined in a study of activity and tenure among hospice volunteers. The influence of prosocial personality tendencies on sustained volunteer activity was also examined. The findings were most supportive of a role identity model of sustained volunteerism. Identity and perceived expectations emerged as the strongest predictors of both time spent volunteering and length of service. Initial motives for volunteering showed a weaker than expected relationship with volunteerism. Motives were, however, correlated with role identity and perceived expectations in an interpretable and theoretically coherent manner. The results provided preliminary support for a conceptual framework that integrates the functional and identity approaches to understanding long-term volunteers.

Subfields: Health, Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e3ba22f6795bf5d3754f9687cdf5542463b84559

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Health

In Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

In Sociology and Political Science

Citations in the corpus

Attracting and Leveraging Visitors at a Charity Cycling Event (2010, background): “That is, following research on volunteer behaviors (e.g. Charng et al., 1988; Finkelstein et al., 2005; Lee et al., 1999), people who have a cause fundraiser identity are expected to be more likely to fundraise than others, but not necessarily in a particular way (i.e. event type).”
Win–Win–Win: The Influence of Company‐Sponsored Volunteerism Programs on Employees, NGOs, and Business Units (2013, background): “In addition to assessing whether citizenry behaviors change after the volunteer assignment, future research should assess the change in employees’ identity, attitudes, and values toward volunteering (Clary et al., 1998; Finkelstein et al., 2005; Grant, 2012; Penner, 2002) as a function of volunteer ”
When helping helps: autonomous motivation for prosocial behavior and its influence on well-being for the helper and recipient. (2010, background): “For example, Finkelstein et al. (2005) reported that extrinsic motives for volunteering were negatively associated with volunteer satisfaction.”
Role-Identity Salience, Purpose and Meaning in Life, and Well-Being among Volunteers (2012, background): “Once the identity has been adopted, a desire to gain role-identity validation from others prompts repeated performance of service behaviors over time (Finkelstein et al. 2005; Grube and Piliavin 2000).”
Motivations to Volunteer and Their Associations With Volunteers’ Well-Being (2016, result): “As can be seen in Table 5, other-oriented values motivation was positively associated with measures of volunteer activity and outcomes; such findings are in keeping with past research (Finkelstein, 2009; Finkelstein et al., 2005).”
Episodic Volunteering and Retention (2016, background): “This result is consistent with traditional volunteer research demonstrating that new volunteers are often exposed to social pressure prior to their decision to volunteer (Penner, 2002), and the perceived expectations of others predict intentions to volunteer in future (Hyde & Knowles, 2013) as well ”
THE THREE-STAGE MODEL OF VOLUNTEERS' DURATION OF SERVICE (2007, methodology): “For assessing role identity, the majority of studies use adaptations of the scale by Callero (Callero et al., 1987; Finkelstein et al., 2005; Grube & Piliavin, 2000) with a reliability index of between 0.77 and 0.81.”
Giving Time, Time After Time: Work Design and Sustained Employee Participation in Corporate Volunteering (2012, background): “In the majority of existing studies, researchers have measured the perceived fulfillment of volunteering motives without investigating the characteristics of volunteering projects that cause this fulfillment (e.g., Clary et al., 1998; Finkelstein et al., 2005).”
A Person-Environment Fit Approach to Volunteerism: Volunteer Personality Fit and Culture Fit as Predictors of Affective Outcomes (2008, background): “Generally, it was found that motive strength was associated with volunteer satisfaction and longevity (e.g., Davis et al., 2003; Finkelstein et al., 2005; Penner & Finkelstein, 1998).”